Advances in the human computer interface (“HCI”) represent a new frontier in human machine interaction. Typically people interact with computers using a mouse and keyboard. Video games generally use wired or wireless controllers with a series of buttons and/or joysticks.
It is desirable to provide new modes for HCI especially for interaction with entertainment or game titles. In particular, it is desirable to allow humans to interact with computers using natural gestures using wired or wireless controllers. However, it would be advantageous to eliminate the need for a physical controller and allow humans to utilize their own bodies and gestures for interaction.
Recently, new forms of HCI have emerged using touch. A user interacts with a computer and/or entertainment device by physically touching portions of a touch interface. Typically, the touch interface is the display device itself.
Although the use of gestures for HCI are known, controlling computers or specialized entertainment devices via interpretation of human gestures in a three-dimensional context is not well known. One significant problem with touchless interaction is that there is no notion of a physical plane. That is, with touch interaction there exists a physical interface such as the glass overlay on the display device that is nonexistent in the touchless paradigm. Thus, there is a need for new forms of HCI in a three-dimensional environment.